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The Mistakes of the Sims 4

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  • OldeseadoggeOldeseadogge Posts: 4,973 Member
    Sk8rblaze wrote: »
    And theyre still at it. I can't even check email without being bombarded by 'play with life' adds by EA promoting TS4 on sale. Relentless pursuit of more pigeons.

    Remember when EA didn't have to make the base game borderline free to get people to play and purchase constantly discounted DLC? I think it was sometime around when the game wasn't a buggy mess, but fun and innovative.

    Amen to that!
  • JoAnne65JoAnne65 Posts: 22,959 Member
    The biggest mistake of The Sims 4 is that it‘s trying to be a happy safe space for everyone. Sorry, but if a pixelated burglar triggers you then you shouldn‘t be playing video games but consulting a psychologist. EA shouldn‘t even entertain this nonsense.

    It destroys all the fun. You have two sims who are enemies but they‘re autonomously friendly with each other. It‘s more difficult to remain poor than it is to become rich. You don‘t pay your bills? Whatever, doesn‘t matter. You catch your wife cheating? Oh, here you have a happy „around family“ moodlet. Your mother just died? Look, here‘s a new painting, now be happy.

    I wouldn‘t be surprised if they‘d removed death altogether in TS5, really. Vampire bites and fire, too. And the kleptomaniac trait.
    Learned the other day they even removed sims pointing at each other in anger because it looks too abusive.
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  • BabykittyjadeBabykittyjade Posts: 4,975 Member
    The biggest mistake of The Sims 4 is that it‘s trying to be a happy safe space for everyone. Sorry, but if a pixelated burglar triggers you then you shouldn‘t be playing video games but consulting a psychologist. EA shouldn‘t even entertain this nonsense.

    It destroys all the fun. You have two sims who are enemies but they‘re autonomously friendly with each other. It‘s more difficult to remain poor than it is to become rich. You don‘t pay your bills? Whatever, doesn‘t matter. You catch your wife cheating? Oh, here you have a happy „around family“ moodlet. Your mother just died? Look, here‘s a new painting, now be happy.

    I wouldn‘t be surprised if they‘d removed death altogether in TS5, really. Vampire bites and fire, too. And the kleptomaniac trait.

    I sadly have to agree with this.... it's probably one of the only things that really irk me in this game along with idle chat lol. Even as little kid I appreciated the maturity of the sims. And the dangers like burglary was scary in fun exciting video game way.

    And to not have a fear emotion coupled with Casper the friendly ghosts is overkill 😖
    Zombies, oh please oh please give us zombies!! :'(
  • OldeseadoggeOldeseadogge Posts: 4,973 Member
    Moreproof this is no longer a game but social-political propaganda.
  • APottsAPotts Posts: 2,448 Member
    edited January 2020
    I would be happy if they would just stop forcing the horrible random NPCs on us. I must have around 400 Sims in my neighborhood tray. Around 250 of them I genuinely like, some I created, some I adopted off the gallery when I was still learning to create Sims, and some are premades that I find interesting. There are also a bunch that I remade in CAS, and the rest are Sims I tolerate, only because they are not so horrible that I feel the need to delete them.

    So why is it that the game insists on making 9 new and all together horrible Dormmates to live with my sim instead of pulling 9 from the hundreds in my non played neighborhood tray?

    This really annoyed me, but what was worse is the fact I wasted numerous hours giving my Dormmates makeovers only to have the game move them out and replace them with more horrible random NPCs...

    To top this nightmare off, I have more horrible NPCs randomly showing up as so called boyfriends to my Dormmates. This nonsense is nonstop. It is exhausting and has pretty much ruined DU for me.

    We need the option to pick and choose who we want in our game. It would also be nice if we could blacklist clothing we never want our Sims to wear. I shouldn't have to use mods to do these perfectly reasonable things.
    Post edited by APotts on
  • Horrorgirl6Horrorgirl6 Posts: 3,170 Member
    Moreproof this is no longer a game but social-political propaganda.

    Maxis PR Manager, Charlie Sinhaseni, August 2014
    “We strive for inclusion whenever possible. We look at our own diversity as a studio in terms of understanding what it is we want to achieve with the game. Our senior leadership is all women—our VP, our GM, our two most senior producers, lots of the department leads. We talk about these topics a lot, and it’s really encouraging that you bring them up. We think about them every single day."

    https://forbes.com/sites/michaelthomsen/2014/08/15/how-does-the-sims-4-handle-gender-and-racism/#57cfe2ed15cd

    Efforts to be inclusive are nice and all but when it becomes the driving force of the studio, over actually making a game, the game stops being a game and it becomes very easy to see it as the propaganda you describe.

    I don't see how have a senior position of all women. is inclusive.Personally I don't think a company should try to be inclusive.They should tried to have the best people for the job.
  • simgirl1010simgirl1010 Posts: 35,708 Member
    edited January 2020
    Moreproof this is no longer a game but social-political propaganda.

    Maxis PR Manager, Charlie Sinhaseni, August 2014
    “We strive for inclusion whenever possible. We look at our own diversity as a studio in terms of understanding what it is we want to achieve with the game. Our senior leadership is all women—our VP, our GM, our two most senior producers, lots of the department leads. We talk about these topics a lot, and it’s really encouraging that you bring them up. We think about them every single day."

    https://forbes.com/sites/michaelthomsen/2014/08/15/how-does-the-sims-4-handle-gender-and-racism/#57cfe2ed15cd

    Efforts to be inclusive are nice and all but when it becomes the driving force of the studio, over actually making a game, the game stops being a game and it becomes very easy to see it as the propaganda you describe.

    I don't see how have a senior position of all women. is inclusive.Personally I don't think a company should try to be inclusive.They should tried to have the best people for the job.


    Who's to say these women aren't the best people for the job? It seems you're implying they were hired simply because they're female.
  • JoAnne65JoAnne65 Posts: 22,959 Member
    He was linking senior leadership being all women to inclusion there. That implies they actually were hired because they were women.
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  • PrincipleOfEntropyPrincipleOfEntropy Posts: 389 Member
    Moreproof this is no longer a game but social-political propaganda.

    Maxis PR Manager, Charlie Sinhaseni, August 2014
    “We strive for inclusion whenever possible. We look at our own diversity as a studio in terms of understanding what it is we want to achieve with the game. Our senior leadership is all women—our VP, our GM, our two most senior producers, lots of the department leads. We talk about these topics a lot, and it’s really encouraging that you bring them up. We think about them every single day."

    https://forbes.com/sites/michaelthomsen/2014/08/15/how-does-the-sims-4-handle-gender-and-racism/#57cfe2ed15cd

    Efforts to be inclusive are nice and all but when it becomes the driving force of the studio, over actually making a game, the game stops being a game and it becomes very easy to see it as the propaganda you describe.

    I don't see how have a senior position of all women. is inclusive.Personally I don't think a company should try to be inclusive.They should tried to have the best people for the job.


    Who's to say these women aren't the best people for the job? It seems you're implying they were hired simply because they're female.

    "It can't all be white males. As a result, I think that hiring managers at EA over the last couple of years have had a sharper focus on diversity."
    - EA's Peter Moore

    pushsquare.com/news/2015/09/ea_wants_more_diversity_in_game_development

    Going through EA's diversity policies on their website along with articles like this makes it clear that they have an agenda. Going back to the topic, the mistake in question would be putting said agenda over fixing the game's design flaws and bugs. The sharp focus should be on releasing a product that functions as intended when their own words seem to indicate otherwise.
    Madotsuki-Chair-Spin.gif
  • MidnightAuraMidnightAura Posts: 5,809 Member
    Moreproof this is no longer a game but social-political propaganda.

    Maxis PR Manager, Charlie Sinhaseni, August 2014
    “We strive for inclusion whenever possible. We look at our own diversity as a studio in terms of understanding what it is we want to achieve with the game. Our senior leadership is all women—our VP, our GM, our two most senior producers, lots of the department leads. We talk about these topics a lot, and it’s really encouraging that you bring them up. We think about them every single day."

    https://forbes.com/sites/michaelthomsen/2014/08/15/how-does-the-sims-4-handle-gender-and-racism/#57cfe2ed15cd

    Efforts to be inclusive are nice and all but when it becomes the driving force of the studio, over actually making a game, the game stops being a game and it becomes very easy to see it as the propaganda you describe.

    I agree. Between that and the community manager stating that The Sims 4 is a safe space for people to learn and grow; it’s not the least bit surprising to see the game being reduced to a tool of learning as opposed to a fun game. All they care about is jumping on bandwagons so they can shout about how inclusive they are. And even when they do that, they miss the mark quite a bit.
  • heartlacingheartlacing Posts: 24 Member
    TS4 was the first Sims game I played at length. I found it consumingly entertaining for like forty hours, and then didn't touch it for eight months.

    There's just no individuality to each sim. I like using cheats and mods to trim the fat and to mix up gameplay a little, but honestly, if not for career mods/mcc/cc in general I'd have asked for a refund. Children and toddlers have barely any content and the AI for even trying to fill their needs manually is whack, occults are buggy, the Strangerville plotline is mental havoc to try to solve with a group if you're a storyteller - it just feels like a bunch of good ideas tossed into one pot and the result is a bunch of discrete parts that don't mingle.

    So I guess my biggest gripe is that the inter-connectivity of packs is just... nonexistent lol. Being able to make your dog or cat a familiar in RoM was a great start, but similar interplay between DLC is almost impossible to find and it's so frustrating.
  • chuckjaymoorechuckjaymoore Posts: 60 Member
    The biggest mistakes of The Sims is The Gallery. So many of the builds in The Gallery require owning all the packs. I only own 2 packs: Spa Day and Parenthood. Everyone wants to utilize the items they own from all the packs. This makes The Gallery useless for me. Though the build mode in The Sims 4 is much easier than 1, 2 and 3, it's still a little tricky adding a roof and furnishing the building. I find it simpler to download builds from The Gallery.
    Gallery ID: 1mooresimmer
    YouTube channel: youtube.com/@1mooresimmer/
    TikTok: tiktok.com/@1mooresimmer
  • OldeseadoggeOldeseadogge Posts: 4,973 Member
    Moreproof this is no longer a game but social-political propaganda.

    Maxis PR Manager, Charlie Sinhaseni, August 2014
    “We strive for inclusion whenever possible. We look at our own diversity as a studio in terms of understanding what it is we want to achieve with the game. Our senior leadership is all women—our VP, our GM, our two most senior producers, lots of the department leads. We talk about these topics a lot, and it’s really encouraging that you bring them up. We think about them every single day."

    https://forbes.com/sites/michaelthomsen/2014/08/15/how-does-the-sims-4-handle-gender-and-racism/#57cfe2ed15cd

    Efforts to be inclusive are nice and all but when it becomes the driving force of the studio, over actually making a game, the game stops being a game and it becomes very easy to see it as the propaganda you describe.

    I don't see how have a senior position of all women. is inclusive.Personally I don't think a company should try to be inclusive.They should tried to have the best people for the job.


    Who's to say these women aren't the best people for the job? It seems you're implying they were hired simply because they're female.

    Not to be snippy, but there was a time when General Electric based its hiring decisions solely on the candidate being either female or not caucasian. I was there at the time and it was confirmed by a senior manager. Anybody could apply, but the only applications that got past the receptionist were those noted above.
  • SimsLovinLycanSimsLovinLycan Posts: 1,910 Member
    edited January 2020
    JoAnne65 wrote: »
    The biggest mistake of The Sims 4 is that it‘s trying to be a happy safe space for everyone. Sorry, but if a pixelated burglar triggers you then you shouldn‘t be playing video games but consulting a psychologist. EA shouldn‘t even entertain this nonsense.

    It destroys all the fun. You have two sims who are enemies but they‘re autonomously friendly with each other. It‘s more difficult to remain poor than it is to become rich. You don‘t pay your bills? Whatever, doesn‘t matter. You catch your wife cheating? Oh, here you have a happy „around family“ moodlet. Your mother just died? Look, here‘s a new painting, now be happy.

    I wouldn‘t be surprised if they‘d removed death altogether in TS5, really. Vampire bites and fire, too. And the kleptomaniac trait.
    Learned the other day they even removed sims pointing at each other in anger because it looks too abusive.

    It reminds me of the throw drink interaction. The animation has the Sim supposed to be throwing the drink fail to do so properly so the target Sim doesn't actually get anything thrown at them. It's pretty pathetic.

    I gave up on trying to have enemy/rival like relationships in any of my files in the game quite a long time ago now, the way they're portrayed is so unbearably weak. I loved a bit of drama in the previous games but this one fights against you if you try to pit Sims against each other. The way they go back to idly chatting like nothing happened after insulting each other obliterates the immersion for me.

    Here here! It's like this installment of the series just went way too soft! It drives me nuts that enemies and sims with poor relationships don't autonomously fight and argue...just engage in friendly banter. What the frick?! And what's with this climbing out of the pool without the ladder junk?! Oh, and when you try to starve a random townie to death in the basement to finish out the Public Enemy aspiration...they pull a magic sandwich out of their behind!!!! That's total BULL!! They're either trying to market the game to too squeamish an audience or the game is being headed up by people who are too squeamish for this franchise. Yet another of the big mistakes made with this game...
    There is a song I hear, a melody from the past...
    5MNZlGQ.gif
    When I woke for the first time, when I slept for the last.
  • JoAnne65JoAnne65 Posts: 22,959 Member
    Sk8rblaze wrote: »
    To be completely honest, I really don’t care what gender any developer on the team is. EA can boast about it all they’d like to make their company seem progressive, but it’s not going to influence my purchasing decision in the slightest. I paid, if I remember correctly, $80 for the premium version of The Sims 4 like a 🤡 back in 2014, and all I really want/care from the studio is a game that is working, innovative, fun, and well worth the price charged.

    Enough with all the lame “progressive” attempts. The Sims was the greatest safe space for one to express themselves when it wasn’t intentionally trying to be one, nor bragging about it, either.
    I don’t care either, though it might be possible that this whole “let’s ban all violence and pointing at people, ugh, só abusive” might actually be a female touch. I prefer balance, in any company. I work in a place with hardly any men and, well, I miss them sometimes ;)
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  • AmbyCakesAmbyCakes Posts: 32 Member
    This is such a good thread.

    I'm fed up with generic NPC's I even had a Sim erm... trap all the paparazzi and sort of accidentally left them in a freezing swimming pool when they'd harass her :o

    I'm sick of my Sims literally going upstairs to the bathroom to prep for a grilled cheese sandwich

    Wish the butler could be playable and still hold the role of an actual butler because I get sick of them not doing much but reading

    Babies are literally nothing but furniture and if you give birth to twins and the first one is upset it gets taken away :(

    Wish we could customize lot spaces. I know that's silly but it drives me crazy how a map will have literally 4-6 lot spaces and there is plenty of room for more but can't do anything about it.

    Want work day to not be timed, especially for the police station. My sim will literally stare at the wall while the clock is ticking when it bugs out and I have to wait until the next work day to complete whatever tasks. It takes the fun out of it.

    I wish there were more functional decorations. I created a 7-11 type store in Strangerville and it's so desolate, even with mods to make it look like a full shop. It's kinda sad.
  • CamkatCamkat Posts: 2,329 Member
    I get the whole wanting to be inclusive thing. I take no issue with that unless the best person for the job is passed up to make up for a missing number.

    Making the game inclusive... perfect! (IMO) Not having any consequences isn't the same as being inclusive though. People fight. Period. It has NOTHING to do with being inclusive. They get along or they don't and that is pretty much that. So when I have 2 sims that are declared enemies and they chat it up in public like nothing is wrong instead of choosing the more "mean" interactions, something is seriously wrong with the coding of this game.

    What I do find amazing is all these other things left out from the game because they're "triggers" (burglars etc) yet there were no fireman and still aren't any?! A whole house burning down because no one is putting out the fire?! This isn't a trigger?! I have never experienced fire (IRL, thankfully) but I would think this would be a pretty huge trigger?! I moved continents and had to get rid of a bunch of personal things and it hurt me even though it was my choice... a fire takes things away (like a burglar but it takes more) and yet, this is allowed but a burglar is not? Some odd logic here. At least with both fires and burglary, I have to buy back the items and it's just a drop in the bucket for the money my sims have accumulated since money is so easy to come by.

    TS4 is trying to be too many things to too many people and for me, it's not working. *shrugs*

    Origin ID: Peapod79
  • PrincipleOfEntropyPrincipleOfEntropy Posts: 389 Member
    The biggest mistakes of The Sims is The Gallery. So many of the builds in The Gallery require owning all the packs.

    I have my Sims 4 content mostly on PC, but next to my setup I also have my TV with my PS4, where I also own the console version. I bought it twice so that a friend and I could play at the same time together, side by side.

    On the console version, every time there's an update, the personal gallery section gets inundated with new houses and the like and nearly ALL of them require ludicrous amounts of packs my friend doesn't own and has no interest in buying, so he has to go through and manually delete all of the junk Maxis puts in there. It's frustrating just to watch as he goes through it all. If he leaves it then it sits there taking up space, pushing all of his own content down to the bottom and jumbling up the order he puts things in.
    Madotsuki-Chair-Spin.gif
  • invisiblgirlinvisiblgirl Posts: 1,709 Member
    Camkat wrote: »
    I get the whole wanting to be inclusive thing. I take no issue with that unless the best person for the job is passed up to make up for a missing number.

    Making the game inclusive... perfect! (IMO) Not having any consequences isn't the same as being inclusive though. People fight. Period. It has NOTHING to do with being inclusive. They get along or they don't and that is pretty much that. So when I have 2 sims that are declared enemies and they chat it up in public like nothing is wrong instead of choosing the more "mean" interactions, something is seriously wrong with the coding of this game.

    What I do find amazing is all these other things left out from the game because they're "triggers" (burglars etc) yet there were no fireman and still aren't any?! A whole house burning down because no one is putting out the fire?! This isn't a trigger?! I have never experienced fire (IRL, thankfully) but I would think this would be a pretty huge trigger?! I moved continents and had to get rid of a bunch of personal things and it hurt me even though it was my choice... a fire takes things away (like a burglar but it takes more) and yet, this is allowed but a burglar is not? Some odd logic here. At least with both fires and burglary, I have to buy back the items and it's just a drop in the bucket for the money my sims have accumulated since money is so easy to come by.

    TS4 is trying to be too many things to too many people and for me, it's not working. *shrugs*

    The myth that burglars are not in the game because they are 'triggering' has been debunked many, many, many times. I believe it was Grant who said something to the effect that they aren't in the game because they simply aren't. If vampires can break in, I can't see a technical reason for not including them. It just hasn't become a priority yet.
    I just want things to match. :'(
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